Electrical terminals are commonly made from a copper-containing base material that may have a conductive coating thereon. Silver is often used as the coating material for the copper base metal for high temperature applications. However, the silver-containing surface may be undesirably corrodible and have friction and wear characteristics that hinder its effective use especially in electrical terminals for automotive applications. The silver-coated terminals react with sulfur-containing substances by tarnishing or by forming bridges between terminals that are made of silver corrosion by-products, which can change the electrical characteristics of terminals and their circuits.
Silver iodide has been used as a solid lubricant layer for power contacts in an on-load tap changer, which is an electromechanical device installed on a power transformer to regulate the voltages of the transformer under load. IEEE, 2001, PP239-244.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical contact or terminal having silver-containing surfaces having reduced corrosion and is economical and efficient for mass-production.